This Thursday, Patrice Evra was fined Thursday 1,000 euros for homophobic insult by the Paris police court. The 41-year-old ex-footballer was also ordered to pay 1,500 euros in damages to the two civil party associations, Mousse and Stop Homophobia, as well as 1,000 euros each for legal fees.
In a video posted on social networks in March 2019 after Manchester United’s victory against Paris SG in the Champions League, the former defender and captain of the Mancunian club launched in particular: “Paris, you are fags, you are fags … Here, it is the men who speak”.
“Non-public insult”
Mousse and Stop Homophobia, supported by the anti-homophobia collective Rouge Direct, had filed a complaint for “public insult towards a group of people because of their sexual orientation”. But the investigating judge had reclassified the facts as “non-public insult” and referred the case to the police court, considering that the ex-footballer had “expressed himself in a private setting for the making of a video which was later posted on Snapchat without her knowledge.
“Patrice Evra accepts the decision, being a simple police ticket which puts an end to an exaggerated controversy”, reacted Thursday evening the footballer’s lawyer, Jérôme Boursican. “Patrice Evra spoke out actively against homophobia and reaffirmed his fight against all forms of discrimination”.
A fueled hatred
In a press release, Me Étienne Deshoulières, lawyer for the associations, declared that “the homophobic remarks of a personality like Patrice Evra fuel hatred and violence against LGBT people, in particular in countries where homosexuality is criminally repressed, like in Senegal, a country where Patrice Evra is from”.
During the trial on December 15, the prosecutor had requested a fine of 1,500 euros, including 300 euros suspended, considering that it was the “responsibility” of Patrice Evra as a “media personality” to “hold a citizen discourse and respectful of all”. Me Boursican had pleaded that the ex-footballer had not “wanted to harm the homosexual community”. “What he is aiming for is PSG,” he assured, recalling that Patrice Evra had published an apology video the day after it was broadcast.